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What Are You Planning to Do with Your Extra Adar?
by Rebecca Klempner
Lucky for us: we have two Adars this year! Jewish leap-years are a little more challenging to figure out than secular ones, so most of us only recall there’s an Adar Sheini coming 1) when we realize, “Rosh Hashanah was awfully early this year!” 2) when we realize, “Pesach will be awfully late this year,” or 3) when someone points out the upcoming rosh chodesh is listed as Adar Rishon when the molad (arrival of the new moon in Jerusalem) is announced in shul.
It’s like finding an extra month in the back of your closet, stuffed under the dress you wish will someday fit again and sandwiched between the suitcases you wish you needed for a vacation to Barbados.
So what are you going to do about it?
The competitive types among us might use this extra month to prepare for Purim. Why not bake not five, not ten, but twenty-five batches of picture-perfect hamentaschen, all frozen a week in advance so that we’ll be ready early? We’ll pick the most creative theme for our shalach manos and package them like professionals, shrink-wrap and all. Our kid will win the costume competition at school, but we’ll know the prize really belongs to us.
Alternatively, the borderline OCD personalities among us could use the bonus Adar to freak out about Pesach. We can go all-out in compulsive Passover preparation. We can do the jobs we’ve always dreamed of, but have neglected because time has been short and our husbands kept telling us, “That’s spring cleaning, not Pesach cleaning.” We can scour the ceiling and whitewash the fence out front.
Astonishingly, this approach does not usually get a family into Pesach in a more relaxed state in a leap-year than any other year.
Those of us with a more laissez-faire attitude (the OCD folks above might label these “slackers,” but they think of themselves as “laid-back”) might use our extra Adar as an excuse to procrastinate. “Don’t worry,” they say. “It’ll get done tomorrow, next week, next month…” Or never.
Frankly, I don’t think that any of these choices is what the Chachamim had in mind when the established Adar Sheini.
The Gemara tells us, “When we enter (the month of) Adar, simcha increases!” Why don’t we use our second Adar to be extra happy for one more month? Listen to wacky music and dance. Treat ourselves to a manicure. Write a gratitude list. Read Far-Side cartoons.
Or bring happiness to someone else. We can make a bunch of cards with smiley faces and send them to all our friends and family members (especially the elderly ones still without email and iPhones). Let’s bake a cake for our husbands. The occasion: none in particular. Call our mother (or better yet, mother-in-law) out of the blue and pay her a compliment. Or choose to say, “Yes,” to our kid when he or she expects a “No.”
We can bring happiness into our avodas HaShem (service to the Almighty). Take a mitzvah that we usually complete with a “hoo-hum” attitude and do it with sparkle. Bring in Shabbos with everything ready a little early and with a smile on our face. Don’t just ask guests to stay, but make them REALLY comfortable (I fondly recall one visit that included sample-size toiletries and pre-packaged snacks to eat whenever I got hungry instead of whenever my host mght think I’d be hungry). Actually pray to HaShem with focus instead of rushing through our morning blessings.
Adar is also considered a month with especially good mazal for the Jewish people. Why don’t we try out something new that we’ve never had the guts to do in the past but always wanted to? Make a dress from a pattern using that sewing machine that just sits in the corner of our garage. Plan a new business venture. Cook that Gourmet Magazine (or Gourmet Kosher Cooking?) recipe we never thought we’d pull off. Better yet, submit that manuscript that sits in the bottom of our drawer. (My first paid writing assignment came from a project submitted in Adar.)
Pray every day for HaShem to heal a hopeless case, to grant a long-sought shidduch, to provide a livelihood to the desperate. Remember, this is the season of miracles.
In Psalms, Dovid HaMelech wrote, “Serve G-d in happiness.” Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said, “It’s a great mitzvah to be happy.” We’re required to be happy all year round, but especially in Adar. We won’t find happiness in a package of shalach manos so gorgeous it’s ready for its close-up or in a spotless house that cost months of anxiety. We won’t find it if we sit around doing nothing. We’ve got to connect: to ourselves, to others, to G-d, and to our dreams. In this “Double Adar” year, let’s maximize the potential for true happiness.
Lucky for us: we have two Adars this year! Jewish leap-years are a little more challenging to figure out than secular ones, so most of us only recall there’s an Adar Sheini coming 1) when we realize, “Rosh Hashanah was awfully early this year!” 2) when we realize, “Pesach will be awfully late this year,” or 3) when someone points out the upcoming rosh chodesh is listed as Adar Rishon when the molad (arrival of the new moon in Jerusalem) is announced in shul.It’s like finding an extra month in the back of your closet, stuffed under the dress you wish will someday fit again and sandwiched between the suitcases you wish you needed for a vacation to Barbados.
So what are you going to do about it?
The competitive types among us might use this extra month to prepare for Purim. Why not bake not five, not ten, but twenty-five batches of picture-perfect hamentaschen, all frozen a week in advance so that we’ll be ready early? We’ll pick the most creative theme for our shalach manos and package them like professionals, shrink-wrap and all. Our kid will win the costume competition at school, but we’ll know the prize really belongs to us.
Alternatively, the borderline OCD personalities among us could use the bonus Adar to freak out about Pesach. We can go all-out in compulsive Passover preparation. We can do the jobs we’ve always dreamed of, but have neglected because time has been short and our husbands kept telling us, “That’s spring cleaning, not Pesach cleaning.” We can scour the ceiling and whitewash the fence out front.
Astonishingly, this approach does not usually get a family into Pesach in a more relaxed state in a leap-year than any other year.
Those of us with a more laissez-faire attitude (the OCD folks above might label these “slackers,” but they think of themselves as “laid-back”) might use our extra Adar as an excuse to procrastinate. “Don’t worry,” they say. “It’ll get done tomorrow, next week, next month…” Or never.
Frankly, I don’t think that any of these choices is what the Chachamim had in mind when the established Adar Sheini.
The Gemara tells us, “When we enter (the month of) Adar, simcha increases!” Why don’t we use our second Adar to be extra happy for one more month? Listen to wacky music and dance. Treat ourselves to a manicure. Write a gratitude list. Read Far-Side cartoons.
Or bring happiness to someone else. We can make a bunch of cards with smiley faces and send them to all our friends and family members (especially the elderly ones still without email and iPhones). Let’s bake a cake for our husbands. The occasion: none in particular. Call our mother (or better yet, mother-in-law) out of the blue and pay her a compliment. Or choose to say, “Yes,” to our kid when he or she expects a “No.”
We can bring happiness into our avodas HaShem (service to the Almighty). Take a mitzvah that we usually complete with a “hoo-hum” attitude and do it with sparkle. Bring in Shabbos with everything ready a little early and with a smile on our face. Don’t just ask guests to stay, but make them REALLY comfortable (I fondly recall one visit that included sample-size toiletries and pre-packaged snacks to eat whenever I got hungry instead of whenever my host mght think I’d be hungry). Actually pray to HaShem with focus instead of rushing through our morning blessings.
Adar is also considered a month with especially good mazal for the Jewish people. Why don’t we try out something new that we’ve never had the guts to do in the past but always wanted to? Make a dress from a pattern using that sewing machine that just sits in the corner of our garage. Plan a new business venture. Cook that Gourmet Magazine (or Gourmet Kosher Cooking?) recipe we never thought we’d pull off. Better yet, submit that manuscript that sits in the bottom of our drawer. (My first paid writing assignment came from a project submitted in Adar.)
Pray every day for HaShem to heal a hopeless case, to grant a long-sought shidduch, to provide a livelihood to the desperate. Remember, this is the season of miracles.
In Psalms, Dovid HaMelech wrote, “Serve G-d in happiness.” Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said, “It’s a great mitzvah to be happy.” We’re required to be happy all year round, but especially in Adar. We won’t find happiness in a package of shalach manos so gorgeous it’s ready for its close-up or in a spotless house that cost months of anxiety. We won’t find it if we sit around doing nothing. We’ve got to connect: to ourselves, to others, to G-d, and to our dreams. In this “Double Adar” year, let’s maximize the potential for true happiness.
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